Certainty not all of these are going to be practical for everybody but IMHO they are at least worth knowing about, particularly with new construction. Some of these are relatively cheap and have been shown to help.

[url=http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/improvement/interior/8-ways-to-protect-your-home-against-tornadoes-and-hurricanes-heavy-duty-doors#slide-1]


If an EF5 tornado barrels over your home, there's not much you can do about it. But barring the very worst, there is a compendium of technology available to prepare for the high winds of tornadoes and hurricanes, from hurricane clips to make your roof connections a little stronger to ultra-tough materials that can protect your safe room against 2 x 4s flying around like missiles.


This story initially appeared in June 2011. We're reposting in response to the devastating tornadoes that struck Moore, Okla., yesterday. These kinds of building techniques may not have saved all those caught in the path of the monster Moore tornado, but hundreds of twisters hit the United States every year, and smart building strategies and tech can reduce the damage from the great many of those.

Ernst Kiesling, professor of civil engineering at Texas Tech University, says there's not much you could do if a tornado scoring a 5 on the EF (enhanced Fujita) scale bears down on your home (and in the case of tornadoes, with their smaller path of destruction, many people would rather gamble with fate than invest in armoring their homes with costly technologies). But if you want to try to brace your home against the howling winds of twisters or hurricanes, there is a spectrum of technologies available, from roof clips and window shutters at the more inexpensive end to reinforcements for doors and walls at the high end. And if you do nothing to safeguard your home, Kiesling says, at the very least, protect your family with an in-home safe room or underground shelter.

1. Doors That Can Take Some Punishment
If a windstorm product can survive a 15-pound, 12-foot-long 2 x 4 flying horizontally like a 100-mph missile, and also the pressure from 250-mph winds, then the product gets the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) seal of approval. Kiesling's Wind Science and Engineering Research Center (WISE) at Texas Tech has tested a variety of doors to these standards using a huge air bladder that simulates EF5 tornado conditions, creating a list of doors that survived the impact and the wind-pressure challenge. These doors are specifically intended for shelters or safe rooms, but they could certainly be used as entrances in a home, Kiesling says.
The Tech: The StormPro Window Shutter System from Curries Doors is a four-sided frame system and a hollow 16-gauge door with a polyurethane-wrapped 10-gauge steel liner at its core.DIY-Friendly? Branden Shank, the technical support specialist for Curries Doors, says that if you can drill a hole into concrete and affix anchors, the installation process is simple. Effectiveness: StormPro was tested at Texas Tech's WISE Center in accordance with FEMA 361, an objective baseline for building tornado and hurricane shelters. Approximate Cost: $5,520 for materials only--door, frame for a 3-foot-wide by 6-foot 8-inch-high opening, hinges, and concealed multipoint lock--as quoted by Murray Womble, a Curries Doors distributor out of Tulsa, Okla.

2. Fortify Your Garage Door
Kiesling, who is also executive director of the National Storm Shelter Association, calls garage doors the weakest link in a home. Once the garage door is lost, you can consider the house lost as well: High-speed winds pressurize the house and blow the roof off like a shaken soda can. Consumer Reports suggests purchasing windowless garage doors less than 9 feet wide that are rated to withstand 50 or more pounds of pressure per square foot, and Kiesling adds that a single door has a better chance of surviving than a double door. But you can also reinforce the door you already have.
The Tech: Secure Door offers a vertical bracing system made of aircraft-grade aluminum that serves as a rigid backbone for the garage door. It anchors into the wall above the door, into the floor and into each hinge, preventing the door from blowing in or suctioning out.
DIY-Friendly? With some basic tools on hand--an electric drill, masonry bit, socket driver, socket wrench, hammer, scissors and screwdriver--the first brace can be set up in 45 minutes; the others in less time. Once you've installed the system, the top bracket and floor anchor bolts are permanent, but the braces themselves can be disassembled and stored in the garage. When a tornado warning goes in effect, you can rig up the braces in less than three minutes.
Effectiveness: The system is Florida Building Code-approved and exceeds the Southern Building Code Congress International (SBCCI) retrofit wind-speed standards. According to wind-speed-pressure tests, if a standard windowless 7 x 16ñ foot rolled sheet-steel garage door is reinforced with three braces, it can withstand a maximum of 180-mph wind speeds. In other words, the door should resist wind pressure from an EF3 tornado and could potentially withstand an EF4. Approximate Cost: $159.99 per brace; $480 for 3.

3. Keeping Your Lid On
During a tornado, the winds blowing over a home exert an inward pressure against the windward wall, outward pressure against the sidewalls and leeward wall, and upward pressure against the roof, Kiesling says. The combination of those pressures will rip through weak connections. "The roof lifts off and the walls are left without any lateral stability or bracing. They tend to collapse outwards, and the house looks as if it's exploding," he says. "So if you can keep that roof on, you have more resistance against the wind." The Tech: Simpson Strong-Tie galvanized-steel hurricane clips come in a range of uplift protections, from 300 to 1500 pounds. Hurricane clips connect the top plate to trusses or rafters, greatly increasing the strength of connection between the two. "The typical connection in the house is a toenail, where the nail is driven in at an angle. If you pull on it, it pulls right out," Randy Shackelford, building code engineer for Simpson Strong-Tie, says. DIY-Friendly? If you can follow instructions and drill a hole with a steady hand, you can put up hurricane clips. There are a few connectors designed specifically for retrofitting a roof via the tight quarters of an attic. The HGA10, which connects the top plate to the truss, is the most common, Shackelford says.
Effectiveness: Uplift protection ranges from 400 to 1500 pounds or more, depending on the clip. Allowable loads, or the maximum load a connection is designed to provide, were determined by static load testing and building code calculations in accordance with the International Code Council and ASTM D1761. But which you use, and how many, depends upon your house design and where you live. In a low-danger area, you might have a clip approved for 500 pounds of uplift protection on every other member of the roof. Living near the coast in hurricane country, you might pick the most substantial connector and put one on every truss. Approximate Cost: $500 for a 2000-square-foot, one-story home designed to resist 110-mph winds; $550 for a 2500-square-foot, two-story home designed to resist 110-mph winds. Both include cost of labor. Using pneumatic tools would reduce the above costs by $300, respectively

4. Shutter Those Windows
A common tornado misconception is that opening the windows and creating a wind tunnel helps to equalize the pressure inside and outside the home. But an open window is just a direct gateway for high-speed debris, and can actually cause the house to become pressurized, like blowing air into a balloon. Instead of opening the windows, put a layer on top of them. The Tech: PlyLox Window Clips are a screw- and nailless alternative to other window-shutter systems. Snap them onto the plywood you're going to use to cover your windows--you can use sheets as thin as 7/16 inch or as thick as 3/4 inch. Then firmly lodge the clip into the window space. The serrated overhang of the clip bites down into the window casing upon insertion. As suction forces pull on the panel, the teeth become embedded deeper into the recessed opening material and resist expulsion. DIY-Friendly? Rob Fee, president of PlyLox, says that if you measure and cut the plywood covers in advance, you can board up a standard home in 20 minutes. Make sure there is 1/8-inch clearance on all four sides of the plywood so the clips will fit.
Effectiveness: The clips were tested for impact and pressure resistance up to 150 mph at the National Association of Home Builders test lab. Fee says PlyLox clips are ideal for hurricanes, though they probably won't be enough against the incredible force of an EF4 or EF5 tornado. Approximate Cost: $29.95 for a 20-pack of 1/2-inch residential clips; $32.95 for a 20-pack of stainless steel clips.


5. Cable-Tite:
Pin Down Your Home After you've boarded up the windows, bolstered the garage door and secured the weak connections in the roof, you still have to worry about keeping the structure on the ground. The gyrating winds of a twister can pluck a home from its foundation.
The Tech: Cable-Tite is one way to keep structures more grounded than ever. With tensile strength of 6700 pounds, Cable-Tite ties the house down by connecting the J-bolt of the foundation to the top plate. With the twist of a wrench, a cam-locking device at the base tightens the cables to a uniform degree, and exerts constant downward pressure on the home. "It's like a Chinese finger lock," Cable-Tite founder Ted Bransford says of the cam lock. "It only pulls in one direction"--down.
DIY-Friendly? Not unless you are starting home construction from scratch or planning a major renovation, which will expose existing J-bolts, top plates, and studs. If you are, the Cable-Tite website offers thorough instructions on DIY assembly.
Effectiveness: The Smith-Emery Laboratories of Los Angeles approved Cable-Tite for uplift protection to 6900 pounds. Approximate Cost: $1500 for a 1500-square-foot home.

6. Walls of Concrete
"We can't change where tornadoes strike, but we can change the way we build and prepare for the inevitable," ARXX CEO Gael Mourant says. That could mean building your home not with traditional timber construction, but a new kind of material: ICFs.
The Tech: Insulating concrete forms, or ICFs, are solid interlocking blocks made of rigid, resilient foam called expanded polystyrene. ARXX's forms are made of two panels of the foam held in place by plastic or steel connectors. Once the building blocks are set, a rebar framework is inserted into the space between the foam panels and concrete is poured. The result: an airtight, insulated, fire-resistant structure. The blocks can be stacked to create 24-inch-thick walls and solid foundations.
DIY-Friendly? ICF is an alternative to timber-frame construction, so you use it when you're putting up walls--either when beginning a building from scratch or building an addition onto a pre-existing home. ARXX does not recommend that homeowners tinker with ICF blocks without thorough training. Even then, a skilled installer should oversee the process.
Effectiveness: ARXX forms passed FEMA's standard impact and wind-pressure tests. The embedded video shows ICFs' resistance to a flying 2 x 4, as well as an ICF home surviving an EF2 tornado.
Approximate Cost: "When you look at what it costs to build with ICF, it is reasonably comparable to timber-frame construction," Mourant says. ICF homes are energy-efficient, requiring 44 percent less energy to heat and 32 percent less energy to cool. "We did a Habitat for Humanity project in Philadelphia. People there were paying $300 a month in heating and cooling costs. Now they're paying $60 a month with ICF," she says.

7. Concrete Cloth
This material has been used to line ditches, create subterranean walls in mines, protect slopes, shield buildings and make rapidly deployable military shelters. If it can stop bullets, will it repel one of Mother Nature's deadliest stunts? The Tech: Just add water to this cement-impregnated fabric and it inflates and hardens like a cast, thickening in a matter of 24 hours to a durable layer that is both water- and fireproof. "The cloth cannot be over hydrated, so this is a simple process," says Peter Brewin, one of the founders of the British company Concrete Canvas, which invented it. Once wet, the material stays malleable for up to 2 hours.
DIY-Friendly?: When using the cloth to clad a safe room, Brewin recommends stretching it between wooden joists and nailing it into position, or using standard masonry hardware when affixing the cloth to stonework. Then, just add water. Concrete Canvas does most of its business with large-scale construction, but Brewin is working to make Concrete Cloth more readily available to consumers at retail stores. Effectiveness: Bath University tested Concrete Canvas Shelters, another product from Concrete Canvas, to resist wind speeds of 134 mph. A layer of the thickest model, CC13, which "inflates" to half an inch after hydration, stopped 50 percent of .22-caliber steel projectiles traveling at 675 mph during impact tests. Still, Kiesling says you can't be completely certain the material will withstand all tornado threats. In the past, he says, a number of products on the market that resisted bullet penetration then failed debris-impact testing with a 2 x 4. "It's an interesting concept they are looking at, but I can't express optimism about it until it is tested further." Approximate Cost: Brewin estimates that the CC13 model would cost $6 per square foot. Thus, armoring a 10 x 10ñfoot space would cost about $600.

8. Taking Shelter From the Storm
Designing a home from scratch to be virtually indestructible would mean building it with more than six times the strength of an ordinary house, Kiesling says, which is "economically unattractive to say the least." The best way to ensure your family's safety without bankrupting yourself is rigging a safe space. "The biggest advantage of having one is the peace of mind of knowing that there is a safe place available," he says. That often means an underground shelter, but it's possible to create an above ground safe room.
The Tech: DuPont StormShelter is an in-home safe room made out of Kevlar, the material that makes police vests bulletproof and is five times stronger than steel. The shelters come in a variety of dimensions, from 4 x 6ñfoot to 12 x 12ñfoot, and can be wired for electricity and outfitted with plumbing.DIY-Friendly?: Installing a DuPont StormShelter is possible with the combined efforts of an architect and contractor. Such top-shelf shelters are usually designed right into the house so that they can be inconspicuous, Kiesling says. They can also be mounted on a slab in a pre-existing home. As an alternative, you can stiffen the walls of a small space in the house--a closet, pantry or bathroom--by using ICFs or steel wall sheathing. FEMA provides a set of guidelines for building a safe room in the house, basement or underground. Kiesling adds: "You can fairly inexpensively buy a manufactured shelter, a concrete box or a steel box that would mount on a concrete slab in the garage." Effectiveness: DuPont's StormShelter is FEMA-certified to withstand 250-mph winds and impact from a 2 x 4 traveling at 100 mph. Approximate Cost: $6500 to $16,000, depending on dimensions and upgrad

As we rebuild and build new homes else where we may want to look at including some of these ideas in our states building codes.
The research shows that stronger buildings can help and for a relatively low cost.

At some point the insurance companies are likely to require stronger homes and buildings in new construction.
There will likely be higher premiums for weaker structures.

That concrete cloth material sounds really interesting.

Thus, armoring a 10 x 10ñfoot space would cost about $600.
Uh . . . Wouldn't it be more like 4 (10x8) + (10x10) x $6.00?
(or around $2520 to do four walls and a ceiling)

That concrete cloth material sounds really interesting.

The US and other military’s use the concrete cloth to quickly set up new camps.

The US and other military’s use the concrete cloth to quickly set up new camps.

Thinking about it, it makes sense that it was military tech. It may be good to add a little extra bulk to a safe room, but it is expensive stuff. I personally think the concrete walls are the best option, my brother rode out the storm at a friend's house, who had walls graded for 300 mph winds.

Thinking about it, it makes sense that it was military tech. It may be good to add a little extra bulk to a safe room, but it is expensive stuff. I personally think the concrete walls are the best option, my brother rode out the storm at a friend's house, who had walls graded for 300 mph winds.For a shelter, thick steal reinforced concrete walls are probably the best option.

I read through this and sure there are some good ideas, but some of these I don't see feasible. This past storm people had about 16 minutes worth of warning. There is not way we could board up our windows and lock down our garage door and safely get in a shelter in adequate time. Especially if you take into consideration it's probably going to be raining hard or hailing while we do it. It's possible to do this maybe a day ahead of time in the cases where we have an idea extreme weather is going to take place, but even then it's going to leave your house abandoned looking. I do like the idea of better attaching the roof to the house, and am going to look into that personally. I'd like to reinforce my garage door, but I'd like something that was on there all the time, although what they showed is the one thing that looked like it could be put up in a couple minutes once installed.

I think the hurricane clips are the smartest, cheapest, and easiest option to explore. As I understand it, they've been integrated into home building codes in coastal, hurricane-prone areas for years. Heck, I think the same concept for attaching sole plates to the wall studs isn't a bad idea either considering the number of exposed sole plates from walls being ripped off foundations. Actually, I wonder if you couldn't produce a long, extruded (pre-fabbed) tie-in component with built-in stud openings at 16" o/c that would just fit over the sole and top plates as the wall is being constructed...

Hurricane clips are a very good idea (we always used them on trusses, but not cut rafters/joists for some reason . . . ). Then you have the joint between the middle plate and the top of the studs. There are fasteners for this too. Next is the joint between the bottom of the stud and the sole plate. Ditto on the availability of a fastener for this spot (but you need to be careful here because the new, safer, chemicals in treated lumber--for sole plates--erodes regular nails/screws and normal, zinc-coated framing anchors). Finally, there are a host of sole plate (to concrete floor/stemwall) construction anchors available that go far beyond the good ol' anchor bolts and/or concrete nails of one type or another.

In the end all of these depend upon the strength and holding power of wood and small nails or screws and will not withstand a direct hit by an F4 or F5 tornado. However, they could be VERY helpful if a house is close to one of those.

I think the hurricane clips are the smartest, cheapest, and easiest option to explore. As I understand it, they've been integrated into home building codes in coastal, hurricane-prone areas for years. Heck, I think the same concept for attaching sole plates to the wall studs isn't a bad idea either considering the number of exposed sole plates from walls being ripped off foundations. Actually, I wonder if you couldn't produce a long, extruded (pre-fabbed) tie-in component with built-in stud openings at 16" o/c that would just fit over the sole and top plates as the wall is being constructed...

My house here in the metro (built in 2004) has both hurricane straps AND has the sole plates bolted to the foundation. The bolts were inserted to the stem wall when it was poured. Both items were standard features from my builder.

And, while I've been around tornadoes enough to know that it certainly won't hold up in a direct hit of an EF4/EF5 twister, the hope is that it will at least provide some extra protection to help keep any occupants that are caught inside safter during such an event.

My house here in the metro (built in 2004) has both hurricane straps AND has the sole plates bolted to the foundation. The bolts were inserted to the stem wall when it was poured. Both items were standard features from my builder.

And, while I've been around tornadoes enough to know that it certainly won't hold up in a direct hit of an EF4/EF5 twister, the hope is that it will at least provide some extra protection to help keep any occupants that are caught inside safter during such an event.

Stemwall-bolted soleplates have been around OK home construction for a long time. That's how my mom's house was constructed back in 1974; heck, I even put them down in my storage building in the back yard :). I'm thinking about going back and adding in hurricane straps to the roof, not because I"m worried about the shed or its contents, but the idea of that building's roof coming off and crashing into the house...be pretty easy to mitigate that risk some..

In the end all of these depend upon the strength and holding power of wood and small nails or screws and will not withstand a direct hit by an F4 or F5 tornado. However, they could be VERY helpful if a house is close to one of those.

It’s important to know that even on most EF-5 rated tornados that the strongest winds of EF5 and EF- 4 typically don’t have a very large foot print and that a great deal of the damage is caused by the weaker winds of a tornado….

Because they do help in that vast majority of cases it’s why IMHO tougher state wide construction codes are needed.
There are several methods that can be goggled but fortifying a garage door plays a very important roll in keeping the roof on homes that have an attached garage.

For those of you who are interested in learning more this is a link to the Texas Tech University, Wind Science, and Engineering Research Center. The site contains links to some of their research and recommendations.

Now that we have good tornado warnings in most cases and with quicker warnings on the way, it’s time IMO to move on to the next phase of tornado protection with higher construction standards.

Texas Tech University :: WISE - Storm Shelters (http://www.depts.ttu.edu/weweb/Shelters/Shelters.php)

Something that seems to be overlooked a bit is what actually causes the damage - debris. All the hurricane straps in the world aren't going to mean anything when a large item (a car) is being flung at you. Sure in weaker tornadoes and during derecho events they'll really come in handy because you aren't dealing with the large items of debris being thrown around.

Now I don't disagree with the improvements being discussed, just that we also need to consider impacts from large objects that the exterior walls need to withstand to keep the structure upright. In most cases we start to move into cost prohibitive territory when we look at that.

Retrofitting "hurricane clips"/"truss straps"/etc. will be a, shall we say "challenging"? task. They are very easy to install while the house is being constructed. I just remembered one builder, for whom we did some framing (back in the '70s/early '80s), who thought it was more cost effective to cut up the metal banding with which the delivered lumber was bundled, nail one end to the top and middle plates, pull it over the top of the truss, slap a nail into the top edge of the 2x, then nail it to the top and middle plate on the other side. He didn't pay us extra to do this so he may have been right! =)

Plus, he may have accidentally been right about the relative tie-down strength of his method.

I wonder how a house built with those "pour in place" forms (big Lego blocks filled with concrete) might enter into this equation.

Far better sole plate anchors (compared to anchor bolts) have been available for years.

(sorry: just remembered another story . . . a really good carpenter who decided to become a builder right before the Penn Square Bank Debacle and lost his ass told me that he got a call from a desperate "builder" who had a house that wouldn't pass the framing inspection because of no anchor bolts. (how did they miss that during the foundation inspection?) come to think of it, the house may have been in Moore (but back in the early 80s). He told the guy he could fix the problem for $300. The "builder" agreed. My carpenter friend bought a bunch of anchor bolts with washers and nuts, cut them off, drove them into the exterior bottom plates at appropriate locations, and attached the washers and nuts. Problem solved. (Inspection passed.) He may have gotten a little bonus from the builder for his timely, deadline-driven, cleverness. if you think about it, the Ramset pins or concrete nails already holding down the bottom plate combined with the dead weight of the walls were just as effective against a direct hit by an F4 or F5 tornado so . . . =)

Just another little excursion into Perception is NOT Reality territory . . . =)

Something that seems to be overlooked a bit is what actually causes the damage - debris. All the hurricane straps in the world aren't going to mean anything when a large item (a car) is being flung at you. Sure in weaker tornadoes and during derecho events they'll really come in handy because you aren't dealing with the large items of debris being thrown around.

Now I don't disagree with the improvements being discussed, just that we also need to consider impacts from large objects that the exterior walls need to withstand to keep the structure upright. In most cases we start to move into cost prohibitive territory when we look at that.

I agree with you but we can easily strengthen most new homes providing a greater degree of safety for comparatively very little money.
Better construction means less debris in the air.

Something that seems to be overlooked a bit is what actually causes the damage - debris. All the hurricane straps in the world aren't going to mean anything when a large item (a car) is being flung at you. Sure in weaker tornadoes and during derecho events they'll really come in handy because you aren't dealing with the large items of debris being thrown around.

Now I don't disagree with the improvements being discussed, just that we also need to consider impacts from large objects that the exterior walls need to withstand to keep the structure upright. In most cases we start to move into cost prohibitive territory when we look at that.

Oh, yeah. Nothing you can do if a 3,000-lb car lands on your house, that's for sure. I think just in terms of the number of homes we've seen swept off their foundations or that collapsed due to roof failures there's at least an opportunity to mitigate a bit of that if we just tweaked the building codes some. No magic bullets, that's for sure.

I've heard stories of this storm having knocked things like cars and 800-lb gun safes out of homes never to be found, so that can make the notion of hurricane clips sound a little silly, I suppose,

Hurricane/Wind Resistant Roof Reinforcement Measures (clips) are NOT "silly".
(yet some of the replies in here could be editorial material for Unpopular Mechanics Magazine =)

"Build it like you were building it for yourself . . ." (my old personal motto during "the trade learning phase")
"You can't do that and make any money . . ." (one of the framing contractors i learned from)
"Build it like you were building it for Norm Abrams." (my "journeyman carpenter" motto).
(now it might be ". . . for Tommy Silva" or " . . . for Mike Holmes" but i quit beating my head against that wall a long time ago. =)

I wonder how any of those three phrases translate into Spanish . . .
(and DO NOT mis-translate that question into any sort of disparagement of today's construction labor force.
Perhaps they simply say: " . . . [build it] con corazon." (with heart).

Hurricane/Wind Resistant Roof Reinforcement Measures (clips) are NOT "silly".

Rad, certainly they are not silly - my reference in the previous post was merely their relative utility relating to a structure being crushed by a flying car. Hurricane clips are a great general construction element, without question.

The clips seem to be very 'cheap' if you will and something that can be added to the house. That was the one thing I got from that article that I am considering adding to my house in my spare time.

I read through this and sure there are some good ideas, but some of these I don't see feasible. This past storm people had about 16 minutes worth of warning. There is not way we could board up our windows and lock down our garage door and safely get in a shelter in adequate time. Especially if you take into consideration it's probably going to be raining hard or hailing while we do it. It's possible to do this maybe a day ahead of time in the cases where we have an idea extreme weather is going to take place, but even then it's going to leave your house abandoned looking. I do like the idea of better attaching the roof to the house, and am going to look into that personally. I'd like to reinforce my garage door, but I'd like something that was on there all the time, although what they showed is the one thing that looked like it could be put up in a couple minutes once installed.
I did work along the Texas coast for many years, some of the means/methods used for hurricane resistance can apply in likely tornado zones. There was one building in Galveston (originally built in the 60's) we did a remodel of that had a hinged plywood soffit panels that had hasp type of hardware, you could undo the panel from the soffit and swing it down to cover the storefront windows and lock them down. We had also some projects hurricane shutters (rolling aluminum door like a counter door) that are metal shutters that cover up the windows/storefront. Many of the beach houses in Port Aransas and Galveston have these type of shutters, not just for protection against a hurricane but also for security if the home is going to be unoccupied for longer periods.

Not much is going to stop a flying car from doing damage but the majority of the homes/business damaged are not from that large of debris, it is normally much smaller debris doing the damage. Most people couldn't afford to build to a standard of stopping a flying car but you can mitigate against the normal type of damage associated with anything less than a direct hit.

I suppose one could think about basic construction measures to resist wind damage as the "insurance" that I sort of understand can be "purchased" during the course of a game of Blackjack. I will say, again, that retrofitting "hurricane" clips will be a very costly and tedious process bordering on impossible.

So . . . How about this . . . (only half joking, have you seen some of those Popular Mechanics mags from the '30s and '40s =):
Instead of leaky and expensive storm cellars of one design or another . . . or even more expensive and mythologically leaky basements ("mythological" when one considers advances leading to modern waterproofing and leak control measures) . . . or even clammy crawlspaces replete with all sorts of spiders, centipedes and possibly snakes . . . Individual Tornado Survival Pods. Think about small versions of what many people have used successfully in the past to challenge Niagra Falls and then consider something like that suit the main character in "Aliens" got into to fight the beast. Hell . . . Think Ironman or Batman fer cryin' out loud. The pods could be anchored to the floor of the house (like, out in the garage) and could be constructed to withstand a direct hit from just about anything including the ground after being hoist into the air after the anchors fail and re-deposited with the contents of The Pod (e.g. you and yours) unharmed!

Silly? Maybe. Yet probably doable.
(think of a whole body helmet that really works, replete with a five point safety harness)

Rad, certainly they are not silly - my reference in the previous post was merely their relative utility relating to a structure being crushed by a flying car. Hurricane clips are a great general construction element, without question.

I know that is what you meant. Really. I did.
(i just phrased my post the way i did in case someone wasn't paying attention to the facts of the matter. =)

I heard on tonight’s local news that Texas Tech university researchers are in town conducting a study on the damage done in the 5/20/13 Moore tornadoes. They had conducted a different study following the 5/3/99 Moore tornado….
What they find our can teach us smarter construction methods.
Much of the Popular Mechanics article is based from findings of TECH researchers

I'm still wondering about the relative value of poured in place forms rather than conventional tree-byproduct methods for residential construction.
Thankfully, platform framing replaced balloon framing a long time ago. (any "conclusions" from the "Tech Research Team" from 1999 to now?)

And what about geodesic domes? Wouldn't they resist uplift from high winds? (just kidding. thanks for starting a very valuable and thought provoking non-political discussion. sincerely.)

(btw: was it texas tech or a different group of studiers who performed that "bonfire pyramid" experiment? probably it wasn't texas tech.
dang: i was right: it was A&M =)

Having lived for four years in a house built with ICFs, I would not use any other construction method were I to build again. While my current house is about 800 sq feet smaller than my last house, in the four years we've lived here, we've saved about $20,000 in utility bills. I suspect we've already covered any increased construction costs. Now, seeing that its one way of tornado proofing (relatively speaking) a home, that just reinforces my happiness with this type of construction.

Thanks, Betts, for the report from the field!
Tell that to the "researchers" if you have a chance to do so.
(And mention them there (currently) imaginary Worst Case Individual Personal Survival Pods. =)

Yet don't discount the possible even better efficacy of a geodesic dome with that cement fabric shell. =)

(the thread is about "Popular Mechanics" suggestions . . . it isn't, like, National Geographic or Gourmet.)

Having lived for four years in a house built with ICFs, I would not use any other construction method were I to build again. While my current house is about 800 sq feet smaller than my last house, in the four years we've lived here, we've saved about $20,000 in utility bills. I suspect we've already covered any increased construction costs. Now, seeing that its one way of tornado proofing (relatively speaking) a home, that just reinforces my happiness with this type of construction.
We plan on using ICF construction when we build in the mountains, of course up here we are more concerned with wildfires than a tornado. It will be just one method we use to mitigate the danger of a wildfire. I did some ICF buildings in the Austin area, different types, it and AAC (autoclaved aerated concrete) are both great alternative building materials.

If you are looking for something very different than a typical home then one interesting method is the monolithic dome like the one that survived Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis on Pensacola Beach. That one was built by the Monolithic Dome Institute (http://www.monolithic.com/) in Italy, Texas, if you have ventured south of Dallas on I-35E you have probably seen their work along the side of the interstate.